


white turkey

by Sway



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: Episode Fix-it, Gen, M/M, post 6x04, post episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 18:09:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7724539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sway/pseuds/Sway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You owe me those french fries I threw up on the basketball court.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	white turkey

**Author's Note:**

> Many many thanks to [sal-si-puedes](http://archiveofourown.org/users/sal_si_puedes) for looking this over and righting my wrongs. Go check out her fics! Now! Just leave this one and read hers...

“So you’re not going to say anything.”

Mike doesn’t look at him but he doesn’t have to. Harvey can see his reflection mirrored in the window on his side of the car.

“You said what I wanted to hear. It’s done,” Harvey replies, focusing on the rivulets of rain running down the glass.

“No, it isn’t. We need to talk about this.”

“You took the deal, Mike. What else is there to talk about?”

“How about that you broke me out of prison? Or how you had them put something in my food to do so?”

On cue, Harvey’s stomach lets itself be heard with a low growl.

“How much time do we have left?” Mike asks.

“What?”

“You haven’t eaten anything, have you? Ray, has he eaten?”

“Do not answer that, Ray. Or I’ll have you fired.”

“Not a scrap, Mike,” Ray says from the front seat, shooting a glance over his shoulder that is half smugness, half fear.

“How much time, Harvey?”

Harvey sighs. “About an hour and a half.”

“Ray, find the closest Five Guys, please. And Harvey, you’re calling Cahill and tell him we’re stopping for burgers.”

“Excuse me?” Harvey finally turns to him, meeting that resolved gaze that only Mike can have.

“You owe me those french fries I threw up on the basketball court.”

And that is that. Whatever Harvey could have brought forward as an argument that this is a stupid idea and that they don’t have the time…Harvey knows Mike won’t have it and Harvey is too tired to fight him.

 

*

“There was no other Five Guys in a fifty mile radius than at the White Turkey Plaza Shopping Center? Are you kidding me?” First Harvey eyes the shack that houses the burger chain, then he eyes Mike. 

“You don’t get to complain. Not tonight. Come on.” Mike slips out of the car, then turns back to Harvey. “And lose the jacket and tie. You look like a sugar daddy who’s just picked up a rent boy.”

“And I thought that’s what we were going for.”

The place really doesn’t look like much. It’s a red and white hut in the middle of god knows where, and the sleek SUV parked in front of it looks as alien as it gets. So does Harvey in his slightly wrinkled dress shirt. Inside, it smells of a fries and grilled meat and besides them, there is only one other patron sitting in a corner booth.

“If I get grease stains on my suit…”

“Sue me, Harvey.” Mike steps up to the counter and orders a bacon cheeseburger, cajun style fries and a salted caramel milkshake. 

Even though Harvey’s brain finds that combination highly disgusting, his stomach gives another affirmative grumble. Going the safer culinary route, he orders himself a bacon cheese dog, regular fries and a coke. His tip is more than generous and he fights back the comment until they have taken their seat on the opposite end of the place.

“If you throw up again, it’s not my fault this time.”

Mike just eyes him before he bites demonstratively into a fry.

They eat in silence for a while and it’s actually not half bad. In fact, it’s the most delicious thing Harvey has eaten in days but he won’t tell Mike that. He had been hungry but he had ignored it until he had forgotten about it.

“You could have told me, you know,” Mike says around a bite of burger.

“I hate to break it to you, Mike, but... a great fake lawyer you may be but you’re no Brando. It had to be real.”

“You drugged me, Harvey.”

“There was no other way,” Harvey insists, trying to keep his voice down and Mike from spilling about a federal crime in a burger joint.

“You know what’s the worst thing about it?” Mike slumps back against his seat. When Harvey looks up at him, there is the fraction of a smile playing around his lips. “That it’s actually kind of cool you got this to work.”

Harvey can’t help but match his expression. “I’m a regular Michael Scofield.”

“How did you know it would work? Taking me to Rachel instead of Cahill.”

Harvey shrugs. “Because you were always a little sentimental.”

Mike regards him steadily and it breaks down Harvey’s resolve.

“Because I like to believe that I know you,” he says at last. “I knew you wouldn’t listen to Cahill when you weren’t listening to me. When you had Donna do the dirty work for you. Neither of us would take no for an answer, so…”

“So you had Rachel do the dirty work for you.”

Another shrug. “Because she knew what to tell you to change your mind.”

“And you didn’t?” Mike challenges.

Harvey doesn’t answer. He overchews an already limp fry instead.

“Six hours, Harvey.” Mike reaches for this milkshake and takes a long pull from the straw. “You waited for six hours in front of that building.”

“I thought you’d be done sooner.”

With more force than necessary, Mike sets the cup down again. “Can you not make it a joke?”

“I’m not.” Harvey washes down the remnants of his dinner with a sip of the stale coke. “I could use a million quotes from any prison movie in the world but…”

“This ain’t a movie.”

Harvey smiles wryly. “No, it not. It’s…” His words trail off and he shakes his head. 

“Talk to me, Harvey. I believe I know you, too, and there is something you’re not telling me.”

“Finish your milkshake, Mike.” 

“Fine. Then the deal is off.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“Maybe I am. But maybe you owe me.” Mike lets that sink in for a moment. “I trust you, Harvey. With my life. And you end up drugging me because all of a sudden, you can’t talk to me anymore. So until you do, the deal is off.”

“You wouldn’t like what I have to say.”

“When do I ever?”

Harvey regards him for a long moment. “I haven’t slept more than three hours a night ever since Anita Gibbs put that deal on the table,” he finally begins, his voice very quiet. “I’ve had three panic attacks since you went in. I spend every waking hour trying to figure out how to get you out. I called in every favor, pulled all the stops and I’m at the end of my rope.”

“Harvey…”

“And the whole time I keep thinking: ‘What would Mike do? He’d have an idea.’ But I can’t ask you because… and it’s killing me.”

Mike looks at him. Harvey feels his eyes on him but doesn’t return then gaze. “Why didn’t you tell me _that_?”

“Because I don’t want you to do it for me.” It’s the truth and yet it feels alien to say out loud. “You have to do this for you.”

Mike nods slowly. Then he grabs his milkshake and the tray. “Come on then. There’s a cellmate to spy on.” He doesn’t wait for Harvey. He disposes of his tray and heads out to the car.

When Harvey follows he finds him engaged in a hushed conversation with Ray that breaks off when Harvey comes into earshot.

It’s not a long drive to Danbury and they spend it in silence; a thicker silence than before if that is at all possible. 

Ray pulls into the parking lot and Harvey feels his heart sink. Their little trip, albeit its actual purpose, has been the best thing that’s happened to him in the past few weeks. Just spending time with Mike in the car and that run-down burger joint… it feels like old times, and he can almost forget that he needs to drop Mike off at the prison again.

Mike doesn’t get out just yet. He takes an annoyingly loud last slurp from his milkshake, then stashes the cup in one of the holders. He doesn’t look at Harvey when he speaks again.

“How long?”

“Depends on how long it takes you to get…”

Mike scoffs. “That’s not what I meant. How long have you known?”

“I can’t follow.” Harvey can follow. He just chooses not to because if Mike is actually referring to what Harvey thinks he is referring to, he is in trouble.

“Six hours, Harvey. You waited six hours to have Rachel tell me virtually same thing you just told me at Five Guys.” He pauses, obviously for the dramatic effect. “Only she said it with an ‘I love you’ at the end.”

“Mike, don’t…”

“So… how long?”

Harvey wants to answer and doesn’t at the same time. He needs to say something but he doesn’t have the words for it. So he just remains quiet for a long moment, then ends the silence with an unsatisfying: “I don’t know.”

“Well, you might want to figure it out. Because when I get out, I will need a place to stay.”

Now Harvey does look at him. “What?”

“Tell me you didn’t expect this.” A sad smile flickers over Mike’s face. “I love Rachel. I really do. It just wasn’t meant to be.”

“Why now?”

“Because she had already moved on.” The smile falters. “I can’t blame her, really. I just didn’t it expect to happen so soon. So when I was up there I realized that the life I used to live ... it wasn’t there anymore.” Finally he looks at Harvey. “You were.”

“Mike…”

“I should go. Gallo probably misses me already. Try not to punch any more SEC prosecutors.”

“I’m not making promises.”

When Mike kisses him then, he tastes like salted caramel. 

Without another word, he slips out of the car and heads back to where the warden is already waiting for him. He doesn’t turn around and Harvey tries not to look after him, hoping that this will be the last time he gets this view.

He waits until the gate has closed behind Mike and then turns to Ray. “What did he tell you? Outside of the Five Guys?”

Ray glances back at him in the rearview mirror, a badly veiled grin on his face. “To make sure you stayed out of trouble. And to bring you lunch.”


End file.
